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Laura Johnson, 20, accused of driving a getaway car, says she was forced to help gang

She 'picked up a TV and put it in her vehicle,' claims witness

A millionaire's daughter was in an ‘intimate relationship’ with a robber and drug dealer she claimed had forced her to drive a getaway car during last year’s riots, a court heard yesterday.

Laura Johnson, 20, said the man, known as Sylar, threatened her by putting his hands around her throat and applying pressure with his thumbs.

She claimed she was left terrified after he and two friends spoke of knives and guns, and showed her mobile phone footage of torture.

Laura Johnson, pictured left at court yesterday and right back in September, had been treated for anxiety and depression before the riots

The Exeter University student said she was so scared that she drove them around South-East London as they looted a haul of electrical goods, alcohol and cigarettes on August 9, one of the worst nights of the riots. However, the prosecution has dismissed Johnson’s claims, saying she ‘knew what she was doing’.

Yesterday, Johnson’s friend Charlie Fryett told a jury that far from being terrified, Johnson had behaved flirtatiously with Sylar, and that the pair were on ‘close’ terms.

Miss Fryett, 20, told Inner London Crown Court that she had met Johnson at Green Parks House psychiatric outpatients unit in Orpington in April last year. Soon she had introduced Johnson to lots of her ‘black, male friends’.

She said she was aware that Johnson, a former pupil of St Olave’s Grammar School, was depressed after splitting from her boyfriend, and that she had self-harmed and attempted an overdose.

Privileged upbringing: Johnson was accompanied by her mother Lindsay (centre) and father Robert (right), who run direct marketing company Avongate

Miss Johnson, who is reading English and Italian, is the daughter of a millionaire businessman who lives in this home in Orpington, south-east London

Miss Fryett told the court they had both ‘fancied’ Sylar, who liked to listen to violent gangster rap. However, the girls had drifted apart after he appeared to be more interested in Johnson.

The final straw for their friendship came on August 9 last year when Miss Fryett phoned Johnson and heard Sylar’s voice in the background, the jury heard.

‘I felt betrayed, I felt like people were going behind my back again,’ she said.

Watched by Johnson’s parents Robert and Lindsay, who run Avongate, a direct marketing company, she told the court that Johnson and Sylar had a close relationship: ‘They would meet up and sit in a car together,’ she said.

‘They had had close contact. They had kissed and stuff. She said he came on to her and whatever happened in the car happened.

‘She was flirting towards him so I blame her for bringing it on. She came across as easy.’

Family home: Miss Johnson has been bailed to her parents' large detached house

A police officer yesterday also revealed how he feared for his life when Johnson revved her car engine at him after he shouted at her to stop.

PC Chris Bramley told the jury that he saw the student sitting in her black Smart car as three black youths filled it with stolen goods from Comet.

Police later found three stolen TVs, alcohol and cigarettes inside the vehicle, while a microwave was discovered on the floor nearby. ‘When I approached the front of the car I heard the engine revving,’ he told the jury.

‘I believed my life was in danger. I had my baton and I struck the front windscreen causing damage. I again heard the engine revving and again hit it, again causing damage.’

Johnson, of Orpington, Kent, has pleaded not guilty to burglary and handling stolen goods.

A 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, of Lewisham, South-East London, denies burglary and handling stolen goods but has admitted burgling a BP petrol station.

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A millionaire's daughter was in an ‘intimate relationship’ with a robber and drug dealer she claimed had forced her to drive a getaway car during last year’s riots, a court heard yesterday.

Miss Fryett, 20, told Inner London Crown Court that she had met Johnson at Green Parks House psychiatric outpatients unit in Orpington in April last year. Soon she had introduced Johnson to lots of her ‘black, male friends’.

Miss Fryett told the court they had both ‘fancied’ Sylar, who liked to listen to violent gangster rap. However, the girls had drifted apart after he appeared to be more interested in Johnson.

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A millionaire's daughter was in an ‘intimate relationship’ with a robber and drug dealer she claimed had forced her to drive a getaway car during last year’s riots, a court heard yesterday.

Miss Fryett, 20, told Inner London Crown Court that she had met Johnson at Green Parks House psychiatric outpatients unit in Orpington in April last year. Soon she had introduced Johnson to lots of her ‘black, male friends’.

Miss Fryett told the court they had both ‘fancied’ Sylar, who liked to listen to violent gangster rap. However, the girls had drifted apart after he appeared to be more interested in Johnson.